........
checking for initscr... no
checking for initscr in -lncursesw... no
checking for -lncursesw in /usr/local/lib... no
checking for -lncursesw in /usr/lib... no
configure: error: Cannot link ncursesw library

Though somewhat curiously, attempting to install the ncurses package from portage as suggested in another thread not only fails to solve the problem, but indeed, fails to attempt doing anything at all: